Showing restrain(t) at Cain

We thought we would head back to Mount Cain today to see if anything had changed with that problem layer over the weekend. Bad news, it has not. The facet-y layer on the crust is still there, reacts in tests, and is overlaid by a wind slab. This problem layer can be anywhere from 10-80 cm deep, depending on how wind affected the slope is. Unfortunately, nothing in our immediate future looks like weather that will change this problem. On our approach to west bowl we saw several natural large avalanches that had run in the area of "the doors." These avalanches appeared to have started as wind slabs and stepped down to this crust, they seemed to be 24-36 hours old. There were also a few very large crown lines from avalanches on Dream peak that appear to have run on this crust. The wind was still blowing the surface snow around a little bit, but it looked as though wind transport is nearly complete. With all this in mind, we backed away from our pit location, and headed down the groomers at the end of the day.